Women in Manufacturing Association Names New Board Chair

Virginia Harn, WiM board chairperson. Photo Credit: WiM

The Women in Manufacturing (WiM) Association has named Virginia Harn, a principal in CliftonLarsonAllen LLP’s (CLA) Minneapolis location, chairperson of its board of directors. CLA is the eighth largest accounting firm in the U.S. Her two-year term began April 1, 2022.

“I am incredibly honored and excited to uphold WiM’s dedication to supporting, promoting and inspiring women in the manufacturing sector,” Harn says. “The WiM mission blends perfectly with our CLA purpose of creating opportunities for our clients, our people and our communities.”

In her new role, Harn says she aims to broaden the WiM membership to welcome more privately owned manufacturing companies. That effort includes corporate membership pricing to give smaller companies affordable access to the association resources, information and connections that otherwise might not be available to them.

“On behalf of the entire WiM organization, I’m pleased to welcome Virginia to the board chair role,” says Allison Grealis, WiM founder and president. “We look forward to working together to move the organization forward.”

CLA has been a corporate sponsor of the national WiM trade association since 2016. Women across the firm have been involved at both the national and local levels in a wide range of leadership and participation roles.

“We are proud of Virginia for the important work she’s doing,” says Samantha Metcalf, CLA’s managing principal of private industries. “We are honored to be part of a journey that supports diversity, equity and inclusion within the manufacturing industry, and we recognize its significance in helping to address workforce challenges facing manufacturers today.”

CLA is also the exclusive sponsor of the WiM Management Development Program (MDP), which provides leadership training for women in the manufacturing workforce who have fewer than three years of management experience. CLA provides annual scholarships, including six scholarships that cover half the tuition for the November 2022 MDP program.